The future of a Halton police dog is being weighed by trainers after the animal attacked a child while off duty in Burlington a little over a month ago.

Burlington Animal Control said the girl was bitten in the face.

Halton Regional Police Sergeant Chantal Corner confirmed that a child who was known to the dog's handler, Constable Greg Casson, was bitten on April 19. She said the victim was taken to a local hospital, treated and released that same day.

The officer has since transferred to another unit, and is set to retire shortly. Corner said police notified public health and animal control, but the dog remains at a training facility where it is being assessed.

Whether the animal returns as a police dog and how long the assessment period may take is unclear.

The Hamilton Spectator has also learned that in an unrelated incident, a Hamilton police dog was euthanized after it bit its handler. Police confirmed the dog, Trooper, was euthanized after he bit Constable Tim Knapp last summer.

Police dogs — typically highly trained German shepherds — live with their handlers.

Burlington Animal Control supervisor Dave Lake said the agency was contacted after the girl who was bitten went to hospital. Public health was contacted to make sure the dog was put in quarantine for 10 days. Through that contact, animal control was notified.

Animal control offered to take a bite report, but never got a call back, he said, adding they would only investigate if requested by the victim or guardian.

In this case, however, Lake said police handled the incident appropriately by taking the dog off the street and by having it reassessed.

In his 30 years in the industry — 12 in Burlington — this is the first police dog bite Lake can recall.

Only if animal control investigated and decided to lay charges could the dog be ordered euthanized by a justice of the peace.

Corner said, "a civilian off-duty dog bite is highly unusual, and has never occurred with this dog (Tracker) before."

According to a July 2009 Burlington Post story, Casson was then a 45-year-old, 26-year Halton police veteran. Tracker at the time was a two-year-old new graduate of a canine training course.

Tracker came from the Czech Republic and has specialty narcotics detection training.

In Hamilton, it was a police decision to euthanize Trooper. The officer who was his handler now works in patrol. Police declined to comment any further other than confirming the incident.

In some ways police dogs are both weapons and officers. They are weapons in that they can cause injury and, if an attack occurs, the officer must report it as a use of force. As an officer, they are given tiny badges and mourned as fallen officers if killed in the line of duty.

According to annual use-of-force statistics presented to the Hamilton Police Services Board in April, there have been six police dog bites between 2008 and 2013. None were reported last year, since it's only reported when a member of the public is injured.

Police dogs and handlers are provincially mandated to go through a minimum 16-week training certification course, Corner said. Additionally they do weekly "maintenance training," two certifications a year, an annual fitness test and one week of annual training.

Steve Kaye, president of the Canadian Police Canine Association said that while little nips happen, in his 28 years working with police dogs he's never experienced a serious bite.

"No one I know of in the profession is looking for an overtly aggressive dog. They are not fun to work with or to have around," he said, adding that instead police look for high drive, highly trainable dogs.

Police dogs typically work until they are nine or 10 years old. Hamilton has had a canine unit since 1960. Halton's began in 1990.

(3) Comment

By dharma|JUNE 04, 2014 10:43 PM

Jet you're wrong, actually. Only breeds specified in DOLA (dog owner's liability act) are automatically destroyed after one bite. This article is sorely lacking in information. How severe was the bite? Were there extenuating circumstances? All of these factors are considered when dogs bite people. I think police dogs need to be held to a higher standard than the average companion, but I don't know what that standard should be. We don't know what prompted the bite, the severity, what rehabilitation might be needed and how successful it might be. I don't think we have enough information to come to the knee-jerk conclusion that the dog should die.

This dog should be put down on 2 accounts. It was off duty and bit a girl. If it were any other dog it would be put down. For the second account, a dog is considered a police officer. If I hit a dog I get charged with hitting an officer. This means that an officer attacked in a 10 year old girl. On 2 accounts that dog should be put down

I'm thinking it must be tough to train a dog to be aggressive while on the job and just turn it off when it's off duty. I liken it to a trained killer in the army who must be a normal civilian when the killing is over...pretty confusing, especially when the dog is destroyed after biting someone!